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- The Jungfrau region is very popular with tourists and day visitors – which sometimes causes problems.
- The municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen want to better control crowds with push notifications.
- A lot is technically possible, but legally there are questions.
Congested streets, overcrowded parking lots, cars in farmers’ fields: the rush to the Jungfrau region is great all year round. In order to better distribute the many people in the region, the community of Grindelwald is working with Lauterbrunnen on a new guidance system.
Direct line to guests
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Various data is collected. In the future, it should quickly be clear where which parking space will soon be occupied or how long the waiting times are at the mountain railways. But how do you get this information to guests?
We have to inform guests directly and easily.
So far, the region has tried providing information on the side of the road – but that’s not enough, says Beat Bucher, mayor of Grindelwald. “We have to send the information directly to people’s cell phones without asking.” This is the best way to reach people, he says when asked by SRF.
Practically all tourists have one thing with them: a smartphone.
Keystone/CHRISTIAN BEUTLER
Mayor Beat Bucher is not only concerned with information about parking spaces and street situations, but also with concrete instructions and rules. “We have a lot of day-trippers: It’s no use explaining something to them – the next day the others will come.” That’s why information on your cell phone is most effective.
The municipality doesn’t want to rely on an app – instead, it wants to send messages without being asked. This is the only way to reach the large number of day guests. Sending push notifications would be a novelty in Switzerland. However, it is technically feasible.
Sending messages to your cell phone without consent is called cell broadcast. Legally and politically, the hurdles are high. “Such forms of direct information are actually only conceivable for disaster situations, but not for solving everyday problems in a tourist region,” says Matthias Hürlimann, who is responsible for telecommunications services at the Federal Office of Communications Bakom.
Consent is required to send information to your cell phone.
The crux of the matter is data protection. A project is currently underway at national level to improve alerting in the event of a disaster. The federal government wants to use cell phone technology here.
Popular with many day visitors: the Jungfraujoch above Grindelwald.
KEYSTONE / Christian Beutler
The deputy director, head of the Telecom Services and Post Department, emphasizes that the project envisaged by Grindelwald must have user consent in some form, be it through an app that is downloaded, be it through a scanned QR code, or be it through an SMS subscription.
Data protection? No problem for Grindelwald
But that is explicitly not what Grindelwald wants. Since you want to appeal primarily to day guests, contacting them must be as easy as possible. There are no problems with data protection. “We don’t assume that we will record individual people’s data,” says mayor Beat Bucher.
The community does not want to be deterred by legal hurdles for the time being and wants to explore what is possible. The problems are increasing and new solutions are now needed. He sees the current efforts as “pioneering work” because new situations require new solutions.
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